MovieChat Forums > Sea Patrol (2007) Discussion > GENERAL THIS 'N THAT

GENERAL THIS 'N THAT

posted 14 years ago by nialiba-602-189555
8 replies | jump to latest

Whilst my family enjoy Sea Patrol, we don't take it seriously as the fact that most away missions will have both the Capt & 1st (XO) Officer on it. The rest of the away team consists of the 'Swain, Chief Engineer, Senior Discipline PO 'The' Chef, etc. etc. I'm sure that the crew of craft of the Hammersley must be triple or quadruple of what we see every week. They are obviously using a working ship so why not bulk out the scenes with real Aus Navy sailors - good PR!

When do we get an explanation as to why some of the crew have nicknames and their meaning? The only ones I have seen which are logical is 2-dads (Double-barreled surname), Swain, because of his appointment, RO (Double meaning there as he is a Radio Operator and his name is Robert,etc.

Oh, and why does Nav only have her name on her left breast uniform when all the others have their trade or discipline and name?

[–] philphoto 14 years ago

Must say it appears here (in the UK ) on satellite TV and I like this Prog probably because I spent 24 years at sea some of it sailing to several ports in Oz.. Now I have left all that
I can recognise some of the personalities I worked with in the 'Crew'like 2 dads who is a cocky little bastard, Charge the competent hands on guy and Buffer who is like a few Bosuns I sailed with so maybe the dodgy acting lets their real personality shine through.
As this is a seagoing 'soap' though the girls in the crew are always very pretty, I would rather have a 6 foot wide XO with a face like a boxer chewing a wasp bossing me about in a crisis than a pretty blonde.

[–] frosted_one 14 years ago

Nikki (nav) didn't have a logo next to her name due to the role of navigator being phased out likely due to the computerisation of the ships, her job wasn't really required on the Armidale class ship. From a career point she should have been working towards becoming an XO but her character may have resigned due to circumstances in the third season.

[–] Carlzere 10 years ago

More likely Nav doesn't have a branch badge because officers don't wear them, only ratings do.

Whit sad old loser'd be thick enough to don thon get-up?

[–] bleukreuz 14 years ago

About nicknames

Mike "CO" Flynn - CO = Commanding Officer

Kate "XO" McGregor - XO = Executive Officer (second in command)

Andy "Charge" Thorpe - I honestly don't know about this one lol

Chris "Swain" Blake - His position is naval police coxswain

Dylan "Dutchy" Mulholland - Holland --> Netherland --> Dutch people

Robert "RO" Dixon - RO = Radio Operator

Leo "2Dads" Kosov-Meyer - He has hyphenated surname. Surname usually come from your dad, therefore two dads. (but in reality he doesn't have two dads)

Rebecca "Bomber" Brown - In the navy they have this nicknames that is associated with specific surname. nickname for surname Brown is Bomber.

Jessica "Bird" Bird - This one's weird because in many website they listed her nickname as "Gap girl" (she is in the gap year program, for people who just finished high school) But in the series, she's always called "Bird" which is her surname

Toby "Chefo" Jones - He's a chef. The word "Chef" is then changed into something with more australian flavour, "chefo". Like how Australian slang for journalist is "journo", milkman is "milko" and garbage collector is "garbo". This is how they also often call "swain" as "swaino"

Josh "ET" Holiday - ET = Electronic Technician

Nicole (Nikki) "Nav" Caetano - Nav = Navigator

Pete "Buffer" Tomaszewski - Buffer is the colloquial title for the senior seaman sailor in a Commonwealth of Nations Navy ship. The formal title is Chief Boatswain's Mate. (from wiki)

Billy "Spider" Webb - spider spins web

Maxine "Knocker" White - same case as Bomber. Surname White gets nickname "Knocker"

a quick google search for "Bomber": (but I'm not sure it's 100% right)
Bomber. 'Bomber' is the nickname given to a sailor with the surname Brown. Most likely this nickname is a reference to 'Arthur Whitten Brown,' who was a pilot during World War One and navigator on the first non-stop transatlantic flight in 1919. For the transatlantic flight, Brown was teamed with pilot John Alcock by Vickers Engineering to fly a modified Vickers Vimy Bomber aircraft. The flight departed from St Johns in Newfoundland at 1:45pm on 19 June 1919 and arrived at Connemara in Ireland, 16 hours 12 minutes later. Both Brown and Alcock recieved 10,000 pounds from the Daily Mail as reward for the flight and were knighted for their achievement. The Vickers Vimy bomber aircraft the pair flew was designed by Reginald Kirshaw Pierson and first flew on 30 November 1917. The aircraft was not used operationally during WWI as the war ended before it could be utilised however it did become the main heavy bomber of the RAF during the 1920s. A commercial civilian version was also produced.

Hope that helped.

[–] frosted_one 14 years ago

Andy "Charge" Thorpe - I honestly don't know about this one lol

He's the engineer, it's what engineers or on a larger ship the chief engineer is nicked

[–] mrdead69 13 years ago

The charge gets his nickname from the qualification that he receives. while many rates have a "charge" certification, usually only the Chief MT's are referred to as charge

*edit* also only sailors have their rate on their name bars, the badge you see on the charge and CO are as a result of achieving a qualification. For the charge it is his charge qual, while the boss's is his Principal Warfare Officer's Badge. In whites you should see both the charge and CO wearing a badge similar to what appears on their namebar.

[–] Carlzere 12 years ago

Yeah from RN, half the nicknames seemed to make sense, others, not so much..Always heard 'Brown' changed to 'Buster' not 'Bomber', must be an Australian thing...

Whit sad old loser'd be thick enough to don thon get-up?

[–] roundhouse96 13 years ago

with them only showing a small amount of crew is similar to star trek they just show the main officer characters and has some random crew member appear every now and then.they just do it for tv a larger variety of crew would be used in the boardng parties not just the people that are always on the brigde.

oh and with bomber they explain that in an episode its just in the navy someone with the last name brown gets the nickname bomber